Washington - With over 2,000 truckers estimated by organizers due
to start arriving in the nation's capitol today, anti-NDAA activists
have announced a call campaign to Congress to demand it enact one of the
truckers' principle demands, repeal of the NDAA. The National Defense Authorization Act,
or the NDAA as it has come to be known, authorizes the US military to
detain US citizens without charge or trial, indefinitely, in secret,
upon mere suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity.

The truckers are carrying the message "Restore the Constitution." They
are gathering at a staging area in Virginia today and will be descending
on Washington, DC tomorrow.

The activists are asking the public to call their congressmen all day
today and throughout the next three days and to deliver the message
"repeal the NDAA military detention of US citizens." They say the
congressional switchboard is open 24/7 to leave messages at your
congress member's office, at 202-224-3121.

The NDAA law has drawn fire since it passed from quarters on both the left and the right. Dr. Cornel West,
an early Obama supporter, has said the NDAA could have resulted in the
permanent imprisonment, without charge or trial, of Dr. Martin Luther
King, as a result of King's association with Nelson Mandela, who was on
the official US terrorist list at the time. On the right, the law has
been savaged by conservative commentators such as Glenn Beck.

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In a press release entitled "The American Drivers' Terms" the Ride for the Constitution says:1) The National Defense Authorization Act is unconstitutional. It
allows for the military to "disappear" any American Citizen without
charge or reason. It allows the military to take control of all private
industry. And it ends the "Posse Comitatus", which protects American
Citizens from being fired upon by our own military.

"We don't necessarily agree with everything the truckers say, but on
this one thing we agree. The Sixth Amendment must be restored. The NDAA
is the most unconstitutional, un-American legislation ever passed in
the history of the United States, and is repugnant to the Constitution.
Supreme Court precedent says that any law repugnant to the Constitution
is void.

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Massachusetts PANDA and it's umbrella organization, People Against the NDAA,
recently scored two back-to-back victories in getting "NDAA
nullification" passed at the local and state levels, in Albany, NY, and
Oxford, MA. The city council vote in Albany was unanimous, while the
Oxford resolution passed by voice vote.

The truckers Ride for the Constitution
will be circling the Washington, DC beltway on October 11, 12, and
13th, with the demand that congressmen "obey their oath to the
Constitution or resign."

In addition to bringing their trucker-specific
issues to Washington, the truckers say that America is late in the
stages of sliding into a police state, as evidenced by over-reach by the
Department of Homeland Security, which has recently purchased over a
billion rounds of high-powered ammunition and thousands of armored vehicles. Trucker also cite over-reach by the TSA, whose searches, the truckers say, have become invasive and humiliating far beyond what is necessary for public safety.

Organizers of the ride are asking Americans to support the convoy by
buying nothing between October 11 - 13. They ask supporters to write
#t2sda on their windshields and on signs ('Truckers to Shut Down
America.')

Activists striving to repeal the NDAA are asking Americans to support
the point in the truckers' agenda calling for repeal by calling their
congressmen and demanding they sponsor a resolution which affirms that
American citizens are not subject to the "laws of war" in their own
country. In the past two days, Albany, NY, and the town of Oxford, MA, joined numerous towns and states with some form of legislation seeking to "nullify" the NDAA.

the duty of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to interpose itself
between unconstitutional usurpations by the federal government or its
agents and the people of this state, as well as the duty to defend the
unalienable natural rights of the people, all of which is consistent
with our oaths to defend the Constitution of the United States...

Ms. Serpa said:

We're going to work with the truckers on this particular item. We
are all in the same boat. This is common in the broad coalitions, we
don't have to agree on everything. Congress passed the NDAA three times
now despite overwhelming opposition from the public each time. We want
to say, 'can you hear us now, Congress?'

Ralph Lopez majored in Economics and Political Science at Yale University. He writes for Truth Out, Alternet, Consortium News, Op-Ed News, and other Internet media. He reported from Afghanistan in 2009 and produced a short documentary film on the (more...)